[Elecraft] QRP RTTY

[Bill Frantz]

Jim is right about this one. However, there was a huge gap 
between the RTTY world and the PSK world and it wasn't the 
technical differences in the modes.

On field day you expect to find all levels of experience, from 
the seasoned contest op to someone using a radio for the first 
time in a GOTA station.

The RTTY stations I saw were all acting like experienced contest 
ops, spread out with good space between the signals. To avoid 
QRMing each other, callers would take turns. A typical QSO would go:

   CQ FD N4XX N4XX
   N4XX DE K6EI K6EI KN
   K6EI 3A SFL 3A SFL K6EI
   N4XX 11A SCV 11A SCV DE K6EI
   K6EI TU QRZ N4XX

I was using K6EI and the N4XX call is made up. My transmissions 
above were the macros I was using. I had a bunch of unnecessary 
DEs and KNs, but the macros were set up for the PSK world.

The PSK world was quite different. Lots of people jumped in to 
call CQ on top of ongoing QSOs. There were pileups everywhere. 
The exchanges were also quite different. Some of the CQers 
expected to receive the exchange before sending theirs. The 
icing on the cake was one station which sent its exchange (not 
quoting exactly, but recreating from a vague memory):

   K6EI One Alpha South Florida One Alpha South Florida de N4XX

Needless to say, the rate with the RTTY stations was a lot 
higher. However, most of the activity was on PSK. We spent less 
that 2 hours on RTTY and 22 on PSK. (I had help from several 
other operators who wanted to learn digital operations.)

73 Bill AE6JV

On 6/29/15 at 4:50 PM, jim at audiosystemsgroup.com (Jim Brown) wrote:

>On Mon,6/29/2015 2:56 PM, Mel Farrer via Elecraft wrote:
>>I think the correct answer to your question on QRP RTTY is to compare the eff of it to other modes
>of digital modulation?
>
>No, it's a different question. In the context of Field Day, 
>effectiveness is defined by the number of QSOs in the log, per 
>hour. And, for QRP battery, the 5X power multiplier.
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